About us
Switch Accountants is a leading accountancy practice with offices in Newcastle, Durham and Teesside plus a thriving Online Accounting solution to support businesses both local to our offices and throughout the UK.
As you’d expect from an accountancy firm, we can take care of all of your accounting needs and ensure that you pay as little tax as legally possible.
But we do so much more than this…
First and foremost, we’re not just bean counters, but approachable business experts with broad, real-world business experience. We’re positive, speak in plain English and believe that we should help you, not belittle or baffle you.
Our whole practice is based around always putting you and your needs first. We are here to help you all year round, not just once a year. We’re always available to answer any questions or advise on any topics via telephone, e-mails or meetings throughout the year. This isn’t limited to just your accounts or tax affairs but a full range business topics.
Crucially, we take a genuinely practical, hands-on approach to helping your business – be that to overcome business problems, to help take your business to the next level or simply being an impartial sounding board.
Please watch our two-minute video (look right and click play) explains more about our practice and how we help businesses like yours.
Our Services – How We help You
We help our clients in many different ways, usually on a package basis (so we agree which services you need and package these for one fixed fee) or for some clients on a service-by-service, case-by-case basis.
We have divided the core services that we provide to our clients into the below categories. Click on the relevant section to find out a little more about our approach in each particular area.
Accounts, TAX, VAT, Payroll etc
How We Are Different
We are different in many different ways, and indeed even guarantee to live up to our promises. Because…
We believe that you should receive a first rate service from your accountant. For this reason, we guarantee to provide all of the below services to each and every client.
Please note that ALL of these services are fully inclusive of your fee; you pay no more for any of the below as we’re committed to delivering the very best service possible to you and your business.
1) Fixed Fees Agreed In Advance
We will provide you with a 100% fixed fee agreement in advance. This will include the full cost of us doing everything you need us to do for you; we won’t neglect to mention something and later tell you that you need to pay for that too.
Only when you agree to this we will begin work for you, meaning that there are never any nasty surprises, unwanted charges, hourly bills or unexpected overruns. Instead, you know in advance exactly how much your services will cost.
What’s more, with this agreed package, we will never increase this fee more than inflation for your entire duration as a client with us on that package. Of course this gives you peace of mind.
And be careful, as some provides have been known to offer a lower fee in the first year as a ‘loss leader’, only to increase this a year later. As the above pledge demonstrates, we will never do this.
2) Unlimited E-Mail & Telephone Support
We will never charge you for ongoing support provided via telephone and e-mail during the year. In fact, we positively encourage you to contact us and discuss anything that is affecting your business.
We do this because we believe that you should be supported throughout the year by your accountant. For this reason, you will have a direct, private number and e-mail for your accountant.
Meaning that your accountant will be accessible, approachable and available to help and support you. We respond to emails throughout the day and if your accountant is in a meeting when you call, they will return the call within a few hours.
Remember, our accountants are not bean counters but dynamic, confident and plain-speaking business people, who take a genuine interest in you and your business. Meaning that you’ll get prompt advice from an expert who cares about you and your business.
3) Meetings When You Want Them
From time to time you need more support than can be provided via telephone calls or e-mail conversations. At times you need a face-to-face meeting with your accountant to discuss an important business topic.
We understand. For this reason, we offer meetings with your accountant when you want them. We don’t screen these or charge any extra for this service; as we believe that when you need our help, we should give it! These can also take place at our offices or your premises, whatever you prefer.
Remember, we are committed to creating long-term relationships with clients. Hence when you first join us as a client, we will schedule a New Client Orientation meeting with your accountant so that they can get to know you and your business more.
This means that we begin our relationship by listening to you and learning about your business, including exploring your ambitious, your ideas, your frustrations and your problems. Because the more we know about you and your business, the better we can help you.
4) Bespoke Tax Plan, Updated Yearly
We know that you expect your accountant to help you to pay as little tax as is legally possible. For this reason, we take tax planning very seriously and have devised a full tax planning service for clients.
Fully inclusive of your fixed fee, your accountant alongside our tax mitigation team will create a tailored tax plan for you and your business, taking account of your unique circumstances.
We will implement this tax plan, and then update it every year to ensure that it is as effectively as it can be and also accounts for both changes in your business and in tax law in general.
This includes a Month 9 proactive tax review, meaning that we can double check everything before the end of your tax year, meaning that if any changes need to be made they can be before it’s too late.
5) No Penalties or Fines
We still hear stories on a regular basis of people incurring none or late submission penalties and fines from HMRC and Companies House, despite engaging an accountant to take care of this for them.
We find this completely unacceptable and we will ensure that you never receive a penalty or fine for none or late submission while a client of ours. Or if you do (you won’t of course!) we’ll pay it for you.
All we ask you to do is submit all required accounting records to us in time for us to prepare these. All you need to do is ‘drop off’ these records and we’ll do the rest and make the deadline.
We also make this very easy for you by our Switch Alert service, which emails or texts (whichever you prefer) you to remind you of your accounts deadlines and also reminds you to pay your tax bill on time. It really couldn’t be any easier!
6) We’ll Deal With HMRC
We appreciate that you don’t find dealing with HMRC or Companies House much fun. No doubt you don’t have the time and you also find their jargon difficult to understand. It’s not a good situation to be in.
That’s why we will deal with HMRC and Companies House for you. That’s right, we’ll deal with any enquiries via telephone or email on your behalf, so that you don’t have to.
All you do is appoint us as your Agent via a simply one-off process that takes about 2 minutes. Then from that moment onwards we will deal with HMRC and Companies House for you.
Also, if you receive any letters or phone calls from HMRC, simply refer these on to us and we will take care of this for you. We are the accounts and tax experts, so let us deal with them; freeing you up to get on with running your business.
7) Switch Business BuilderTM Membership
A few years ago, we conducted a survey of clients who told us that it’s hard to stay on top with all the developments in the world of business, especially the online world, as it changes so fast.
Clients also told us that they don’t know to ask us about certain things as they don’t actually know that they existed. For example, if you don’t know that a strategy or technology exists, you won’t ask us about it.
To overcome this, we developed the Switch Business BuilderTM, a unique service in which we pick key topics every month and cover these in Written Articles, Tutorial Videos and live Webinars and Seminars. Allowing you to stay up-to-date and discover new ideas.
We know provide this hugely popular service to clients via our Monthly Bulletin which is sent to you atomically and entirely free of charge (this service is sold separately to none-accounting clients for £47 per month as a stand-alone product).
8) Switch ScoreboardTM & Competition Tracker Reports
Knowledge is power. Therefore it is essential that you, as the leader of the business, have all the important knowledge and information about your business available. Because without this information you lack power; power that is invaluable to improving your business.
That’s why we have developed a unique Scoreboard that gives you all of this precious information about your business. Best of all, we ‘plug this in’ to your business and conduct the analysis for you – meaning that you don’t have to worry about doing it – providing the scoreboard in a one page summary.
This affords you priceless information both in terms of what you are doing right, and how you could push home this advantage, and what you are doing wrong, and how to reverse your fortunes. Crucially, we will give you concrete, tailored recommendations for improvement; not merely a scoreboard.
Finally, another part of the Scoreboard is a Competition Tracker, allowing you to compare yourself against other businesses in your sector. Use this information to build on strengths, overcome weaknesses, exploit opportunities and defend against potential threats.
9) Regular Business Development Sessions
Not all accountants are the same. Yes, the set of accounts that accountants produce may look the same. But from these accounts, a great accountant will glean invaluable insights into your business and translate this into practical advice such as how to grow your profits, improve cash flow and pay less tax.
We describe this as helping you to unlock the hidden potential in your business. This is what we do for each and every one of our clients. At the very least once a year (when we sign off your accounts) and usually more often, we will sit down with your for a robust Business Development Session.
At this session, we’ll review the business both in terms of the accounts and what you say about how things are going. Based on this, we’ll give you practical, action-oriented ways to overcome problems and grow and develop your business.
Our clients tell us that they get a huge amount out of these sessions. We’re told that we’re positive, supportive and enthusiastic – but also that we’re realistic and plain-speaking, meaning that we’ll tell you the truth, not just what you want to hear.
And if you want us to, we can give you a bit of a kick in the right direction every now and then, to keep you on track (we know sometimes that you’ve got all the right ideas, you just need some help keeping focused and motivated).
But whatever you need to overcome business problems, exploit new opportunities and grow your business, we can help you to achieve your goals during regular Business Development Sessions with your accountant.
10) Full Access To Our Marketing HotlineTM
Due to popular demand, we have recently launched our very own Marketing HotlineTM service, which is available to all of our clients as part of their package.
We have a team of in-house marketing specialists – whose key role is to run our own internal marketing in addition to delivering parts of our business growth programmes and services – and we made them available to every client to pick their brains and benefit from their experience and expertise.
Simply telephone or email with your question and it will be expertly answered. Or perhaps you are short of ideas but know that you should be doing some marketing; in which case, set up a marketing review, again free of charge.
The team can also help to improve your brand or to help you to make more sales. Their expertise extends across the whole marketing spectrum from traditional marketing (such as advertising, PR, telemarketing, direct mail, events, etc) to modern online and digital marketing (such as websites, Google marketing, social media, e-mail marketing, online advertising, etc).
So if you have any questions, would like help putting together a campaign or simply need some inspiration (with all things branding, marketing and sales), clients need only to contact the team and they will provide as much help, support and guidance – often including resources such as fill-in-the-blank templates – as they possibly can, all included in your fixed fee.
Ask Yourself…
Ask yourself, is your current accountant providing all of these services, and adding this much value, for your business? And are they committed in writing to continuing to do this year in, year out?
If the answer’s no, ask yourself what would be the combined benefit to your business of all of these services; how much of a difference would it make to you, your business and your life?
Perhaps now is the time for you to Switch Accountants.
Our Business Building Approach
We do much more for you than your accounts. Specifically, we work alongside you to proactively support, develop and grow your business. We provide this support to all clients via at least yearly, 1-2-1 business reviews; via telephone and e-mail support throughout the year and via meetings as and when you need them.
With also offer tailored business growth programmes for ambitious clients who want to take their business to a whole new level.
When we start working with a new client, we conduct a New Client Orientation during which we identify a client’s specific goals and take a review of their current business performance. On the basis of this, we will then devise a specific approach to helping to improve, grow and develop that specific client’s business.
Hence we cannot state here exactly how we will help your business; as we’ll work with you directly to identify your specific issues, problems, opportunities and ideas. But we can give an idea of how we help clients. So the below list is a summary of business areas which we typically help clients with.
- Identify & Solve Business Problems – whatever issues you’re facing, we can help you to quickly resolve them
- Resolve Cash Flow Issues – we have countless strategies to keep cash flowing through your business
- Grow Profit Margins – for too many businesses, profits are lower than they could be; let us change that for you
- Control & Cut Costs – we’ll identify ways for you to reduce expenditure without reducing quality or service
- Enhanced Credit Control –learn how to get paid faster without going to court or losing customers
- Improve Team Performance – based on experience, we’ll show you how to get the very most from your staff
- Develop Operational Systems – we can help you to make your business more efficient and enjoyable to run
- Financial Health Checks – discover how to make your money work harder and how to keep more for yourself
- Benchmark Against Competition – compare your results against your competitors; then we’ll help you to beat them
- Improve Sales Performance – practical, low cost ways to win new customers, get more referrals and make more sales
How To Find Out More
If you would like to discuss anything you have read on this page or if you would like to discuss how we can help you and your business, then please get in touch.
You can do this by completing the form below (scroll down to the end of the page), calling us during office hours on 0191 378 0308 or sending an e-mail to switch@switchaccountants.co.uk